Proposals seen to boost development

Chinese President Xi Jinping's newly proposed Global Civilization Initiative seeks to build a global consensus to help resolve conflicts and this, in turn, can usher in peace and accelerate economic development, said Zafar Uddin Mahmood, policy adviser to the secretary-general of Boao Forum for Asia, or BFA.

The GCI is consistent with and intrinsically linked to the two initiatives proposed earlier, the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, he told China Daily.

He said Xi's GCI, which is very timely, will address the issue of various countries' dealings with each other in a humbler way, wherein we can listen to others' point of view.

"I think it's very important that people should have the tolerance to listen to each other's point of view and then reach a consensus, and even if consensus is not reached, people should agree to disagree in a civilized way," Mahmood, who is also former special envoy for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and special assistant to the prime minister of Pakistan, said in an interview.

In the recent past, conflicts have become more frequent and people are expressing very strong views.

"As a result of that, a kind of polarization in the (global) society has been created," he said.

Mahmood said, instead, on the global arena, even if we do not accept others' point of view, at least the right should be given to them to maintain those views.

Regarding the GDI, he said China is a very old civilization and its principles are very humane. Sharing is the philosophy of Chinese civilization, and they would like to share whatever they have.

Thinking beyond

"In the community of nations, we are all citizens of this globe. Definitely, there are different levels of development in different countries," he said. "So President Xi's GDI says that we should share our development with everybody to achieve the goal of common prosperity for humanity."

With the three initiatives, Xi is thinking beyond China, and the Chinese people hope to share their experience and their prosperity with partners all over the world, Mahmood said.

Mahmood said that the GDI is a very important part of Xi's idea of working to build a community with shared values, and shared prosperity. It also matches exactly with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

He noted that on March 29 he was listening to the speech of former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, at a panel on security at the forum. "It was a very, very sad statement he (Ban) made that he does not think the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN will be achieved by 2030," he said.

Therefore, Ban emphasized that the world should work harder to achieve these goals.

"I think President Xi's GDI will complement the UN's efforts to achieve common prosperity for the global community," he said.

The theme of this year's BFA was "An Uncertain World: Solidarity and Cooperation for Development amid Challenges". For the GSI, Mahmood said when the security situation improves, it accelerates development, and when there is development, the security risks are reduced.

"We can see globally that wherever there are conflicts, they are due to lack of development. People get frustrated," he said, adding that wherever development takes place, there is a peaceful atmosphere.